Where Home Is
by BambiPB
Summary: They grew up in the same hometown. They loved together, they hurt together. Oneshot, AU, please R&R


They grew up in the same hometown.

It was fairly small for a city for their area but it was homey at the same time. When little Trafalgar D. Water Law was born, his parents had been ecstatic. He grew up happy, loved. He had been curious since the day he was conceived, his first word being, "digest." (His parents always thought he meant "dissect," as he was reaching for a scalpel when he said it.)

Too curious for his own good, he'd wandered into the forest. The city was big on some mineral- Amber Lead- but in and beyond this forest there was none. So little Law, the brave and curious boy he was, wandered in one day. He had a little doctor coat and hat, a scalpel in his backpack.

It wasn't long before he realized he was lost, but no, he wasn't scared of course not. He was going to be the world's most renowned doctor, why would he be scared of the woods? And so he plunged on. And on. And on even further. He walked until he needed a nap and maybe some lemonade. (What? He was still just three after all.)

Not long after he sat at the base of a tree, a woman with bright auburn hair and a dusting of freckles came by. She smiled down at him, and for a moment Law wondered if he'd hit his head and died, and this lady was an angel.

"Hello!" She smiled, holding her hand out warmly. He gingerly took it, and a man walked up behind her, carrying a large bundle of blankets. It turned out that if Law had pushed on just a bit further, he would've found their little home. It was one-story, had five rooms, and was the homeliest place he'd ever seen (other than his own home, of course.)

The bundle of blankets the man, named James, was holding turned out to be a little baby girl, Lucillia they'd named her. The woman he'd thought was an angel was her mom, her name turned out to be Janice. Law looked in awe at the tiny redhead in James' arms. (Law thought he'd keel over and die when they offered to let him hold their precious baby.)

From that point on, Law made regular trips to their house, some days his own parents would come. They later found out there was a pre-existing path in the woods to the Lockhart's home.

When Law was about fourteen and Lucy about twelve, Law discovered his mom was having another baby! He was excited for the most part, but he was overall worried and plain confused. His mom had said it would be a girl, so did that mean his sister would be like Lucy?

Law loved Lucy but sometimes she was overbearing. He was just starting to get girls at school to like him, and when she'd show up it'd ruin his chances with a cute girl.

But all people are different, he supposed, so maybe the baby would be more like him? He wasn't sure his parents could handle two little Laws running around. They had enough trouble keeping up with him as it was.

As it turned out, the baby was more like an even blend of the two of them. When Lami turned three- Law at seventeen and Lucy at fifteen- she would run around the forest, tucker herself out, and wait for the two teens to find her. She was a troublemakers for sure- obviously Lucy's influence, Law would argue- but she was brilliant and picked things up easily- Lucy and Law fought over that trait- and had the most beautiful mop of dark hair anyone had ever seen- Lucy let him have that one, no one in her family had dark hair.

Time went on, and Law's family was struck with a tragedy. First his parents died of cancer, and though he tried his hardest to stay strong for Lami, she started getting sick. It wasn't cancer, just a high fever. But Lami was always frail and she was still just five. At nineteen, Law lost the last member of his family.

Through it all, the Lockharts had always been there. At age seventeen, Lucy was the closest thing Law had to family. He could afford to keep his house, being the only doctor in town now. He could get by fine on his own, financially. Law stayed in his room, Lami's and his parents' rooms untouched. They had a guest room, though, and that's where Lucy ended up most nights.

Law could get by financially, but he was still a human who yearned for support and comfort from others. (He would never admit to it, he was far too proud for something like that.) and Lucy was always there. She showed up with his favorite treats, made dinner for the two of them.

When she was nineteen and he twenty-one, her parents felt it safe to leave their city for a while. They worked hard in town and figured they could leave their bakery to Lucy while they were away. It was supposed to be a quick cruise, they'd be back in three weeks.

It was lonely sometimes, but when she got home Law was there, nose in a medical book. She still forgot sometimes that he technically wasn't certified, but he knew more than most pre-med students. And it's not like he could afford to leave for a few years to get his degree, too many people came to him every day.

They had long ago fallen into a casual pattern, but one drunken night disturbed that peace between them.

It was the second night of her parents being away, and she'd just remembered for the umpteenth time that day that she couldn't go over and see how they were doing. So before heading home she went into the liquor store, saying she was grabbing it for Law, that it'd been a rough day. She wasn't exactly lying, it had been a rough day. For her. The man knew her well and agreed, and she walked out a happy woman. She was nearly twenty anyways, what did it matter?

Law had a slightly disapproving face when he laid eyes on the vodka. He was silent as she grabbed two glasses and a carton of OJ. After three, they ran out of OJ and figured what the hell, regular vodka it is.

They sat and talked all that night, and they knew they'd need aspirin in the morning. It got to the point where Law decided they needed to cut off, and so he put the drink on the highest shelf where he knew she couldn't reach.

Lucy wasn't happy about it; she shoved him against the counter, glaring up at him through half-lidded eyes. There'd been underlying tension between them for a while now; sharing a house with someone, especially someone you knew was attractive, wasn't always the best idea. Or really a good idea at all.

Neither one of them could remember in the morning, but someone had shoved their lips against the other's. They would find themselves falling into a pattern the next few days after that. It would get brought up, they would argue who started it, and then they would start it again.

Law and Lucy shouldn't have been compatible. One was uptight, the other too free-willed. One was always thinking about what next, the other live for the now. One could scare someone off with their- his -neutral face, the other had lost kids running up to them-her -in grocery stores. (They had had an argument once about why kids would teeter away "unnoticeably" in the streets.)

Lucy got a call two and a half weeks into her parents vacation. A freak storm had hit and the boats was dragged a few miles, eventually crashing on nearby rocks. Only a handful of people made it, the Lockharts not part of them.

Lucy began to fall apart after that, but like she'd done for Law, he managed to piece her back together over the years. Neither of them were ever quite the same after their families had passed, but through it all they came out of it together.

When she was 26 and he 29- damn that boy for having a birthday 6 days before her- he knelt down and asked for her hand. There were tears on both ends (not that Law would ever admit that he cried a little when Lucy choked on her food and nodded her head, still trying to remember how to breathe.)

She was 27 when they had their first little girl- named Lami after her late aunt- and she was the spitting image of the girl they remembered. She had dark curly tresses, and shiny brown eyes that looked at the world in wonder.

The next two were twins, a girl and a boy- Miranda and Drew. They were fraternal, but shared many qualities. Miranda had curly hair like Law, but it was vibrant red. Natural freckles grew onto her face eventually, and her eyes were chocolate brown, but looked like fresh honey on some days. Drew shared Miranda's freckles. He had straight brown hair, and his mother cerulean blue irises.

Lucy and Law thought they were stopping there, but when she was 33 Lucy found out she had another baby to come. He was named Lawrence, and mostly resembled Lucy's father. He adopted James' hazel eyes, and had his strawberry blond hair. Fortunately, the freckle gene pulled through when he was about 7, and was developing his own dusting. Instead of it just being his cheeks and neck, he had freckles along his arms, stomach, back, and legs.

Their city was small, but it was theirs and it was home. It's where they met, grew up, fell in love, and had pieces of themselves ripped out. But that's just how life goes for some.


End file.
